Thursday, May 21, 2009

Lots of nice moments yesterday at the Stadium, and the Yankees seem to have found a partial solution to filling up those empty seats.

First up, the game. Squawker reader The Emperor said that John Sterling exclaimed, "Positively Swishalicious" over Nick Swisher's homer. And yes, he went there - he did do a back-to-back-to-back and belly-to-belly-belly call! And the other night, Sterling had the stellar call, "Two and two for Swisharoo." Heh.

Swisher, who has been slumping as of late, finally got his first homer at the new Stadium. I wonder if honorary bat girl Polly Tompkins, the schoolteacher fighting Stage 4 cancer who got to throw out the first pitch, brought him good luck with her cheerful attitude. They seemed to have bonded, hugging after the game. Bryan Hoch of yankees.com wrote a very touching story on Tompkins - click here to read it.

Phil Hughes made it harder for the Yanks to send him down to the minors with his nine-strikeout win. I think the Yanks should keep him up for a while as a long reliever - I'm not sold that Chien-Ming Wang is ready just yet.

Oh, snap! Johnny Damon seemed to call out Joe Torre, saying about how "family-oriented" Joe Girardi runs his clubhouse, suggesting that's why this year's free agents came to play in the Bronx. I don't think that's the case - I think the $423 million the Yanks spent had a bit more to do with it. But I guess Damon couldn't say, "Girardi actually pays attention to players besides the four rings guys," or "Hey, I don't have to worry that Girardi is going to sell me out in a tell-all book."

And somebody in the front office seems to have gotten a clue. Instead of shunting the servicemen and servicewomen in town for Fleet Week to the obstructed view bleacher seats, the way the Yanks did with the West Point cadets on Opening Day, the Yanks put them in the Legends seats right up front. Cool!

Only thing I didn't like about last night's game was Mariano Rivera pitching the ninth. I had no problem with Girardi bringing in Mo in the eighth to shut down the O's. But after the Yanks scored six runs at the end of the inning, Mariano should have been out of the game. Getting him the save isn't worth him pitching the ninth, even if he did throw only 14 pitches in the game.

Speaking of Rivera, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the Yankees' first Kangaroo Court since 2005. He was the judge, A. J. Burnett, Johnny Damon, and Derek Jeter were the jury, and Xavier Nady was the court stenographer. Sounds like it was great fun. I think Brian Bruney should have been the bailiff.

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In honor of the Yanks winning eight in a row, here's a classic video about the number eight. It's Sesame Street's Jazzy Spies segment, featuring Grace Slick on vocals. Yes, Grace Slick. It's like having Amy Winehouse on Barney and Friends or something! Anyhow, the tribute to No. 8 is from early 1969, back when Oscar the Grouch was orange. It

And for Mets fans, click here to check out the day when Keith Hernandez and Mookie Wilson made a cameo on Sesame Street. They told Ernie to put down the duckie. Good advice!

5 comments:

My sister had a ticket to last night's game through her office -- and she's never been to a big-league game. (She didn't really care, she was going to enjoy the experience more than to root for the Yankees.)

But around noon she said she couldn't go, so she sent me an e-mail asking me if I wanted it. Unfortunately, my office's e-mail system didn't get it to me until it was too late. (Fortunately, she found another demented Yankee Fan to take it.)

When that happened, I knew something big was going to happen in the game. I was thinking something historic, like Hughes throwing a no-hitter, or A-Rod hitting 4 home runs (*), or an unassistated triple play by Cano or something. Well, it wasn't anything like that, but three straight home runs, and Hughes pitching 5 innings with only ONE walk is pretty good.

Anybody know how the Mets are doing these days? I hear the other night, in the 11th, they went back to their 1962 roots and didn't touch a key base. And those aren't exactly the 1962-66 Dodgers with Koufax and Drysdale, either. I guess, in games managed by Joe Torre -- including those games where he WAS the Mets' manager -- the Mets usually lose.

Last nights game had a lot of feel good moments. I found it interesting that on pre-game they touted Derek Jeter as being PollyTompkins favorite yankee and he seemed to fade away and be replace by a far more personable Nick Swisher. Maybe the new faces of the yankees are just what this team needs(Swisher, CC, AJ, Coke, Cervelli, Pena) to bring some life back. The old guard hasn't quite cut it the last few years. This team seems to be developing a "personality" and so far that seems to be a good thing. Finally a team showing some emotion--go yankees!

where's the love for the Red Sox? Taking the last two from the Jays is helping the Yankees out quite a bit. I hope they can take the third one. And who will you be rooting for this weekend: Sox or Mets?

One important thing about last night's win is that the Yankees are finally in the black as far as run differential. Division leaders are usually solidly in the black; after those early season blowouts, the Yankees were way in the red.

About Us

Lisa is a Yankee fan from Staten Island. Jon is a Met fan from Manhattan. These best friends have been squabbling about their teams -- and each other -- since 2006. Now they are writing about New York City life beyond baseball.